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The first day of the NAB Show has wrapped up in Vegas. The Videocraft team on the ground have been posting snippets of what is on the show floor and we have been wading through the press release announcements here at the office. Here are a few things that caught our eye and there will be more, make sure you are following us on social media (see the links in the footer of this page) for the most up-to-date information.

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  We highlighted the Sony Press conference on our social media yesterday but in case you missed it, you can view it here . Sony's key announcements were across a wide range of products including a NEW 4K HDR Monitor the PVMX550 which supports High Dynamic Range display and a wide colour gamut supporting DCI-P3 and most of the ITU-R BT.2020 standard. It also has inbuilt a quad view display, with Individual settings of EOTF(SDR/HDR), colour space, Transfer Matrix, Color Temperature, contrast, brightness, SDI/HDMI, RGB/YCBCR, etc. for each display There was a new recorder for F5 and F55 Cameras announced - the AXS-R7. Compared to previous Sony 4K recorders, the AXS-R7 Portable Memory Recorder doubles 4K RAW recording from 60 fps up to 120 fps from the F55 camera*. For shooting at higher frame rates, the recorder captures 2K RAW at up to 240 fps from the F55 and F5, for playback with 10x super slow motion.** Note that the 4K RAW 120 fps recording only available for F55. And also the AXS-R7 Portable Memory Recorder is not compatible with the HXR-IFR5 interface unit. Another interesting camera development was the NEW PXW-Z450 an XDCAM Camcorder with a wide range of recording options including 4K QFHD (3840x2160) at 50p/59.94p, as well as a variety of HD formats including XAVC Intra, XAVC Long GOP, MPEG HD 422 and MPEG HD 420. Thanks to a specially-developed 4K 2/3-type Exmor R CMOS sensor, the PXW-Z450 is ideal for a wide variety of 4K operations, allowing you to use a wide range of commercially available B4 mount lenses without having to use an adapter. It also has great networking features such as built-in wireless module, embedded RJ-45 Ethernet 100B-T connector and Near Field Communication (NFC) function for easy Wireless LAN setup and operation via a mobile or tablet with Sony’s Content Browser Mobile™ application. There was also some great discussion on the 2nd generation of their Optical Disc Archive solution and a release of generation 2 products including a stand alone disk archive drive unit and new 3.3TB write once optical discs. Sony has a long white paper on their generation 2 ODA solution which is a lengthy read, but if your're interested, you can find it on their website here

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  A surprise is not that Ross Video just keep innovating, but how great to see them hit the ground at NAB with a camera offering. If you missed our social media posts about it yesterday, Ross Video have released the Acid Cam purpose built for Studio production. It integrates perfectly with their robotics systems such as the Furio Remote Control system in Videocraft's rental fleet (you would have seen it on the Arias Red carpet). There are two models in the range - the ACID H200 is a full HD 1080P, 3 imager camera that utilizes the very latest 2/3” UAIT CMOS sensors that provide unrivaled performance of the very highest quality. Sensitivity, Signal to Noise and overall picture resolution are unmatched by any competitor with its three 2.6 Mega Pixel image sensors and standard 2/3” B4 lens mount. For moderate budgets and less critical applications, there is the ACID Z50. This is an excellent three CCD sensor 1080i/720P HD camera. This camera is also equipped with the UltraChromeHR output to provide a cost effective solution for awesome keying when combined with the Ross UltrachromeHR chroma keyer. Its lightweight, yet rugged construction also makes it the perfect companion for the Ross Robotic Furio Pan/Tilt heads for legislative bodies, House of Worship, educational, and corporate communication systems. For more information check out the Ross Video webpage

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  An interesting one for Post-Production was the announcement of Avid NEXIS. Avid NEXIS is the world’s first and only software-defined storage platform, enabling fully virtualized storage for all media environments. What does that translate to for you? The NEXIS intelligent software system does some incredibly powerful things like offer a real-time scalable set of definable/resizable workspaces and a solid protection scheme that can cover you for up to 5 drive failures. Intelligent also means it is a media aware next-generation file system with pre-integrated hardware, which means it’s purpose built and tested to work as a cohesive system (unlike generic storage and third party software). The bottom line is that NEXIS delivers unrivaled flexibility, scalability, control, and extensibility not only to the Avid MediaCentral™ Platform, but also key workflow enabling third-party media applications like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro X, so you can meet any production challenge. From the smallest production teams to the largest media enterprises, NEXIS is the only storage platform with the flexibility to easily scale and grow with you at every stage of your business. For more information check out the Avid Blog page about NEXIS.

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  Miller Tripods announced a new Arrow X Series of fluid heads - key feature is the 16 Counterbalance PLUS settings so you can add in half settings and are able to rig or re-rig your setup as required. Watch the launch video which covers most of the main points or read their press release for more details. There are three new models in the Arrow X Series - X3, X5 and X7

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  As always, there was lots to say from our friends at Blackmagic Design in press releases. They also released a 50 minute video overview of all their announcements on their site and you can view it here - yes, there are more than a dozen and we found these ones were certainly interesting. First up was the new Blackmagic URSA Studio Viewfinder, a high resolution 7” studio viewfinder with variable tension mounting points, tally, external controls. For those of you who have already purchased an URSA Mini, then you will be excited by the announcement of the FREE OS providing URSA Mini with a new user interface and heads up display, which dramatically reduces the number of menus and sub-menus needed to find specific settings and commands. You can now quickly change settings such as ISO, white balance, shutter angle, iris, frame rate, frame guides and more without ever having to navigate through any menus. There are now custom white balance and white balance presets, along with tint control settings. Customers also get more accurate shutter angle selection, including a large easy to use on screen keyboard for easy entry of settings. When entering the shutter angle, the new URSA Mini camera OS will even offer smart flicker free shutter angle suggestions to assist the camera operator. For recording and monitoring you could also take a look at the Blackmagic Video Assist 4K features two built in high speed UHS-II recorders that work with the latest high performance SD cards, making them fast enough to record Ultra HD video up to 2160p30 on widely available, inexpensive SD cards. Files are saved as broadcast quality 10-bit 4:2:2 video in either ProRes or DNxHD formats, making them compatible with all popular editing software, so you can start editing immediately without having to transcode or convert files. Recording can be triggered to start and stop using LANC or over HDMI or SDI from the camera. With two built in recorders, customers get non-stop recording because when one card is full it automatically continues onto the next. Not sure if Blackmagic are going for best pocket-sized product awards - they introduced the Blackmagic Micro Converter SDI to HDMI and Blackmagic Micro Converter HDMI to SDI, two new super small, pocket size broadcast quality video converters. This converts signals from professional broadcast equipment such as cameras, decks, switchers and routers into HDMI so customers can monitor video using big screen televisions and projectors. The Micro Convertors are powered via the same micro USB connection that’s used on smartphones so customers can use the included DC plug pack, any USB device, or even a smartphone charger to power the converters. If multiple inputs and monitoring are your thing, then check out the Blackmagic MultiView 4, a new multi viewer that lets customers monitor 4 completely independent SDI video sources on a single display. Customers can monitor any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD formats and frame rates all at the same time. Blackmagic MultiView 4 can output to regular HD monitors, however, when customers plug in an Ultra HD display, they will get four times the resolution of a simple HD only multi viewer.   Connecting and controlling formats is hard work, so why not try the latest product announcement from Blackmagic Design featuring the latest 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 technology. UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 has a wide range of digital and analogue connections and is designed to work with virtually all formats ranging from SD and HD all the way up to Ultra HD and digital cinema. Thunderbolt 3 performance allows customers to work with the highest quality 12-bit RGB and highest frame rate video, including stereoscopic 3D and DCI 4K, making it perfect for high end feature film, television and commercial work. UltraStudio 4K Extreme features a hardware codec that can encode in real time into the new H.265 format. Well, with the Shogun and Ninja Flame products hitting our inboxes and showrooms only weeks ago, here we are again with a new fire burning in our pockets for latest release from Atomos - the Shogun Inferno is the combination of the most advanced monitor technologies – 1500nit/10bit/HDR, the latest recording capability – 4Kp60 over Quad-SDI, along with playback and editing functionality that encourages on set collaboration. Shogun Inferno makes mastering a high resolution, high frame rate, high dynamic range workflow available to all filmmakers. Read more on the Atomos Website.